Friday, October 17, 2008

Federal: Bill Would Liberate Great Apes from Laboratory CagesBill Details:Name: The Great Ape Protection Act Number: HR 5852Call for Action: Please write to your U.S. Representative and ask him/her to support HR 5852Summary of bill.

The Great Ape Protection Act, HR 5852, would prohibit invasive research on great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons. It would furthermore prohibit the use of federal funds to conduct invasive research on a great ape, the breeding of great apes for the purpose of use in research, and the transport of a great ape for the purpose of conducting invasive experiments.In a separate provision, this bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide for the permanent retirement of all great apes owned or under the control of the federal government that have been used for invasive research.

Great apes, which have been used since the 1950s as models for physiological, biomedical, and behavioral studies, are intelligent and social animals whose physical and mental similarities to humans indicate that their pain, needs and emotions are comparable to those experienced by humans. Concern over the long term care of chimpanzees (who can have a life-span of up to 65 years in captivity), was the reason that the CHIMP Act was passed in 2000, and amended to make retirement to a sanctuary permanent in 2007.

This bipartisan bill is being sponsored by Representative Edolphus Towns (NY), with seven co-sponsors, Representatives Tomas Allen (ME), Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Mary Bono Mack (CA), Bruce Braley (IA), John Campbell (CA), James Langevin (RI), and David Reichert (WA). The New England Anti-Vivisection Society’s Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories, has promoted a legislative ban on research on great apes, a move that is strongly support by the Humane Society of the U.S. and, of course, The National Anti-Vivisection Society.

Please take action now and ask your U.S. Representative to support HR 5852 to ban the use of great apes for research. If your Representative is not already a sponsor, please ask him/her to become a sponsor of this important bill.

Lonesome George

Every now and then George closes his eyes for a few centuries the stars stop for the occasion and the sun goes out, his night lit only by dream...

"Hello, big boy," she says, shell new and lustrous, green as the deep sea; and her eyes deep as the dark gems that glow deep where it roots...

George, lifting his nose skyward still seeing her behind his closed eyes moves forwardslow as lava oozing from the bottom of the sea

His scaled feet arch like trees first planted then pulled up from their roots...

"I'm coming," he says.

Written by, Steve Campbell

"Lonesome George" is the name given by biologists to the last surviving male Giant Galapagos Tortoise. There are no surviving females.

The entire Giant Galapagos Tortoise species was destroyed directly by humans. The tortoise's shells were used to make tourist trinkets. The shell is part of the tortoise's body (like turtles). Without their shell, they die much like a human having their skin removed (I imagine, equally as painful).

The animal was usually still alive when it's 'soft' body was cruelly cut out from it's shell. In countries like China, and the Island of Bali, this brutal and unethical practice of live tortoise/turtle slaughter continues.

George is approximately 90 years old. In 2008, great efforts were made to help George produce offspring by fertilizing eggs of a 'close' relative species. Sadly, the experiment failed.

George is the rarest known creature in the world and... the loneliest.